The present disclosure relates, in general, to cleaning apparatus and, more specifically, to apparatus for cleaning glass.
Various tools are available to clean glass, such as the exterior surface of vehicle windows. Such tools typically include a handle and a perpendicularly oriented cleaning element, such as a wiper blade, sponge rubber pad, and combinations thereof. Water or ammonia-based cleaning fluid is applied to the exterior surface of the vehicle window and scraped off by the tools to remove debris. Such tools are easy to use on the exterior surface of vehicle windows since the exterior surface of the vehicle windows is easily accessible both to apply cleaning fluid to the windows and to remove the fluid and debris from the windows.
However, such tools are ineffective in cleaning the inner surface of vehicle windows. The extreme angles of the vehicle windshield and backlight with respect to the dashboard and rear seat shelf in conjunction with adjacent vehicle components, such as the rear-view mirror, steering wheel and rear, center brake light housing make it difficult to get the edges of a cleaning tool close to the extreme lower edges of the windshield and backlight. In addition, applying fluid, which is typically in the form of a spray, to the inner surfaces of the windshield and backlight results in a significant amount of the spray being deposited on the underlying horizontal surfaces adjacent to the windows, such as the vehicle dashboard and the rear shelf.
Thus, the most common implements used to clean the inner surfaces of vehicle windows are sponges, rags, and paper towels. Manual force is exerted through the user's hands to manually apply cleaning fluid and/or spray to the inner surface of the windows and then to manipulate the cleaning element in a back and forth or circular motion across the surface of the windows. While a user may be able with a considerable amount of effort to clean most of the inner surface of the vehicle window, it is still difficult to completely clean the edges of the window and, more importantly, the lower edges of a vehicle windshield and backlight.
A variety of tools has been devised specifically to clean the inner surfaces of vehicle windows. Such tools are typically formed of a pad which is connected to an elongated handle. A cleaning element is attached to one side of the pad by various means including clips, straps, or hooks and pile fasteners. However, each of these tools is specifically devised for a single type of cleaning operation, such as scrubbing or drying, but not both.
An improved and more effective cleaning apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,231,684 and 6,795,999, the current version of which is shown in FIGS. 1-7B. In the illustrated cleaning apparatus, the inner absorbent layer between the bottom surface of the paddle and the encompassing cleaning element or bonnet is formed of an easily compressible foam material. Besides being absorbent, the foam layer provides a high friction-gripping surface for the cleaning element or bonnet to retain the cleaning element or bonnet in its formed shape and in continuous contact with the underlying surface being cleaned.
However, the substrate foam layer is severely affected by the cleaning head design, which results in a non-existent cleaning outcome in several critical areas of the cleaning apparatus, typically at the tip and corner edges of the paddle and along the side edges between the tip and the corner edges of the paddle.
The combination of the height of the foam layer which has a 3/16th inch thickness and projects outward from the 1/16th inch length peripheral lip of the paddle by another ⅛th inch, along with the acting force of the elastic cleaning element cover attached over the paddle results in the foam layer being compressed at the tip and corner edges and/or the side edges of the paddle to the point that the foam is unable to retain its full thickness at each of the critical tip and corner edges and/or along the side edges. This results in separation of the cleaning element below this portion of the foam layer from contact with the surface being cleaned, as shown in FIG. 5, 6, 7B, resulting in incomplete cleaning of the entire surface.
The existing cleaning apparatus has a 1/16th inch peripheral lip or ridge added to a uniformly thick 1/16th inch cleaning head or paddle to aid in increasing the structural integrity of the thin 1/16th inch cleaning head. This creates a paddle with a ⅛th inch total height for peripheral edge wall. A one-inch wide cutout of the 1/16th inch perimeter wall height at the center side areas of the cleaning head adjacent to the handle receivers was added to aid in cleaning head flexibility.